144 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



the three following days I had no leisure in which to 

 look at the nest, but on the 28th I found a bulbul 

 sitting on three eggs, so that, as only one egg per 

 diem is laid, the first egg must have been deposited 

 on the morning of the 26th at the latest. 



On returning to my bungalow at about 10.30 p.m. 

 of the 28th, I found some of the servants collected 

 in the verandah. They showed me a dead brown tree 

 snake (Hipsas trigonata) which they had killed in 

 the plant containing the bulbuls' nest. The reptile 

 had evidently discovered the nest and crawled up 

 the stem of the plant. At its approach the incubating 

 bulbul had made a great commotion which attracted 

 the notice of the servants. They promptly killed 

 the snake. On my return the eggs were lying broken 

 on the ground, and I was not able to discover whether 

 the fluttering bulbul or the servants striking the 

 snake had caused their downfall. No further eggs 

 were laid. Bulbuls seem always to desert a nest 

 when their eggs are destroyed. It is worthy of note 

 that the snake attacked the nest in the dark, and on 

 all other occasions on which I have observed similar 

 tragedies they have been enacted at night. What, 

 then, becomes of the elaborate theory of protective 

 colouration ? 



